On Dec. 14, 1900, in a lecture to the German Physics Society in Berlin, Max Planck presented a mathematical derivation that introduced quantum mechanics principles to the field of classical physics. In his paper, “On the Theory of the Law of Energy Distribution in the Normal Spectrum,” Planck suggested in mathematical terms that energy could be emitted in discrete packets called quanta.

Prior to Planck’s work, physicists had relied on the classical wave theory of light to explain the behavior of light and the radiation of electromagnetic energy. However, classical theory could not explain sufficiently the absorption or emission of light, such as when metal glows following exposure to high temperatures. In 1860, German physicist Gustav Robert Kirchoff conceived of the blackbody—a hypothetical ideal body or surface that absorbs and reemits all radiant energy falling on it. The blackbody became central to efforts to explain energy radiation.

In the 1890s, German physicist Wilhelm Wien determined in that the maximum wavelength reached by radiation is inversely proportional to the absolute temperature of the emitting body. The accuracy of Wien’s law, however, was lost on longer wavelengths. A formula developed by English physicist John William Strutt (Lord Rayleigh) was similarly problematic at short wavelengths. Rayleigh’s formula actually led to the “ultraviolet catastrophe”—the incorrect notion that radiation emission from a blackbody could be of unlimited intensity.

Planck’s derivation became known as Planck’s radiation law. And it is now understood that a blackbody heated to several hundred degrees emits primarily infrared radiation, but at higher temperatures, as radiation energy increases, the emitted spectrum shifts to shorter wavelengths that fall within the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. This is why, for example, several moments after heating a fire poker, its tip becomes visibly red. Planck received the 1918 Nobel Prize for Physics for his contributions to the development of quantum theory.